James Gurney

This daily weblog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney is for illustrators, plein-air painters, sketchers, comic artists, animators, art students, and writers. You'll find practical studio tips, insights into the making of the Dinotopia books, and first-hand reports from art schools and museums.

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or by email:gurneyjourney (at) gmail.comSorry, I can't give personal art advice or portfolio reviews. If you can, it's best to ask art questions in the blog comments.

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All images and text are copyright 2015 James Gurney and/or their respective owners. Dinotopia is a registered trademark of James Gurney. For use of text or images in traditional print media or for any commercial licensing rights, please email me for permission.

However, you can quote images or text without asking permission on your educational or non-commercial blog, website, or Facebook page as long as you give me credit and provide a link back. Students and teachers can also quote images or text for their non-commercial school activity. It's also OK to do an artistic copy of my paintings as a study exercise without asking permission.

18 comments:

I wondered the same thing. What convinced me, apart from hearing lots of parrots talk and reading about raven talk, is how consistent the head bobs were, and also the weird non-human speech artifacts on the last phrase. But who knows?

I was watching videos of ravens and starlings talk a few months ago. I am pretty convinced that they can. The idea that a dinosaur could speak if we could only interact with them excites my inner child to no end! *u*

After watching the other videos of the same raven, it seems not only to be mimicking the words, but the actual voice of the person teaching him the words. It's only a matter of time before that raven starts making prank phone calls.

I read "Bird Brains", which is more of a diverting read than an in depth scientific examination. It is full of interesting anecdotes, observations, and great photos of the Corvid family. Neat little facts such as their ability to count to six (actually count to six, not mimic the words) and learning to evade human detection for decades despite existing in large numbers can be found in this book.http://www.amazon.com/Bird-Brains-Intelligence-Ravens-Magpies/dp/0871569566my wife and I actually had the pleasure of having a crow stay with us until he reached maturity and could fly. They are shockingly intellegent.http://deadoftheday.blogspot.com/2008/06/jimmy.html

I once watched a documentary on ravens that interact with campers. If my memory serves me, they were using them as research for animal intelligence. They observed them and not only were they able to open plastic containers and velcro pouches but they would use zippers like pros, Honestly i cannot remember why that was a big thing but my memory tells me it had something to do with abstract thinking on a level that researchers thought animals were just not capable of.